2 Corinthians 12

Translator Notes

1. Paul acknowledges the unprofitability of boasting (ou sympheron, 'not beneficial') yet continues, driven by the rhetorical necessity of the fool's speech. The transition from suffering (ch. 11) to visions reveals another arena where Paul can match his opponents — but he will handle even this credential with characteristic self-deprecation.

Translator Notes

1. Paul speaks of himself in the third person ('a man in Christ'), creating distance from the experience. The verb harpagenta ('caught up, snatched away') is passive — Paul did not achieve this experience through technique or merit; he was seized by divine power. The 'third heaven' in Jewish cosmology was the highest heaven, the dwelling place of God. The repeated disclaimer 'I do not know... God knows' reflects genuine uncertainty about the nature of the experience and a refusal to claim more than he can verify.

Translator Notes

1. The repetition of the disclaimer emphasizes Paul's epistemological humility. Unlike his opponents who presumably boasted about their visions with elaborate detail, Paul refuses to claim knowledge he does not have about the mechanics of the experience.

Translator Notes

1. The word paradeisos ('paradise') is a Persian loanword (pairidaeza, 'enclosed garden') used in the LXX for the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8) and in Jewish apocalyptic for the heavenly dwelling of the righteous. The arrēta rēmata ('inexpressible words, unspeakable utterances') are doubly inaccessible: they cannot be expressed (arrēta) and they are not permitted to be spoken (ouk exon). Paul's vision account is remarkable for what it withholds rather than what it reveals.
2. [TCR Cross-Reference] Echoes Genesis 2:8. See the TCR's OT rendering for the Hebrew behind this passage and the translation rationale.

Translator Notes

1. Paul maintains the third-person fiction: he will boast about 'that man' (the one who received the vision) but not about himself — except concerning his weaknesses. The distinction is theologically precise: the vision was God's doing and cannot be claimed as Paul's achievement; only his weaknesses are truly 'his own.'

Translator Notes

1. Paul could legitimately boast about his visions — it would be truth, not foolishness. But he deliberately restrains himself (pheidomai, 'I spare, I refrain') so that people evaluate him only by what they can observe: his words and actions. He refuses to trade on secret spiritual experiences.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The skolops ('thorn, stake, splinter') is one of the most debated words in the Pauline corpus. Its identity has been suggested as a chronic illness, a spiritual affliction, an opponent, or persecution. Paul describes it with two phrases: 'in the flesh' (tē sarki, locating it in his bodily or human experience) and 'a messenger of Satan' (angelos satana, attributing it to demonic agency while recognizing it serves divine purpose). The purpose clause is repeated: 'to keep me from becoming conceited' (hina mē hyperairōmai) — God uses even Satan's torment to accomplish sanctification.

Translator Notes

1. The threefold prayer echoes Jesus's threefold prayer in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44). In both cases, the answer is not removal of the suffering but grace to endure it. 'The Lord' (ton kyrion) to whom Paul prays is Christ, as the following verse makes clear — an early witness to prayer directed to the risen Jesus.

Key Terms

Translator Notes

1. The perfect tense eirēken ('he has said and it still stands') indicates that Christ's answer is permanently valid, not a one-time response. The verb teleitai ('is made perfect, is completed, reaches its goal') means that divine power achieves its full expression specifically through human weakness — not despite it, not alongside it, but through it. Paul's response transforms suffering into opportunity: he will 'boast all the more gladly' (hēdista mallon) in weakness because weakness is the condition for experiencing Christ's power. The verb episkēnōsē ('may rest upon, may tabernacle upon, may spread a tent over') echoes the shekinah glory — God's dwelling presence — resting on the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-35).
2. [TCR Cross-Reference] Echoes Exodus 40:34-35. See the TCR's OT rendering for the Hebrew behind this passage and the translation rationale.

Translator Notes

1. The verb eudokō ('I am content, I delight, I take pleasure') does not describe masochism but the settled conviction that weakness is the arena of divine power. The final sentence — hotan gar asthenō, tote dynatos eimi ('for when I am weak, then I am strong') — is the thesis of the entire letter compressed into eight Greek words. It is the definitive Pauline paradox.

Translator Notes

1. Paul closes the fool's speech by blaming the Corinthians for making it necessary — they should have been defending him instead of requiring him to defend himself. The phrase 'even though I am nothing' (ei kai ouden eimi) is both genuine humility and ironic understatement: Paul has just demonstrated superiority to the 'super-apostles' in every relevant category.

Translator Notes

1. Paul mentions 'signs of an apostle' (sēmeia tou apostolou) as a recognized category — the Corinthians knew what authenticated an apostle. The triad sēmeiois te kai terasin kai dynamesin ('signs and wonders and mighty works') is a standard biblical formula for miracles (cf. Acts 2:22; Romans 15:19). Yet Paul places 'utmost patience' (pasē hypomonē) first, suggesting that endurance under suffering is the primary apostolic credential, not miraculous power.

Translator Notes

1. Devastating irony: the only way the Corinthians were 'less favored' than other churches was that Paul did not take their money. 'Forgive me this wrong!' (charisasthe moi tēn adikian tautēn) is sarcasm at its most cutting — Paul's refusal to be a financial burden is cast as an 'injustice' requiring forgiveness.

Translator Notes

1. The phrase 'I seek not what is yours but you' (ou zētō ta hymōn alla hymas) is one of the most beautiful expressions of pastoral love in the New Testament. Paul wants the Corinthians themselves, not their money. The parent-child analogy is apt: as their spiritual father (1 Corinthians 4:15), Paul provides for his children, not the reverse.

Translator Notes

1. The verbs dapanēsō ('I will spend') and ekdapanēthēsomai ('I will be utterly spent, I will be completely exhausted') move from active to passive, from spending resources to being spent as a resource. Paul offers himself as an expendable commodity for the Corinthians' benefit. The closing question is poignant: greater love receives less love in return — the disproportionate economy of pastoral care.

Translator Notes

1. Paul quotes another accusation: even if he did not accept payment directly, he was 'crafty' (panourgos) and got money through deception — perhaps through the collection for Jerusalem. Paul's sarcastic tone indicates he is repeating slander, not confessing to it.

Translator Notes

1. Paul challenges the accusation with a specific question: can the Corinthians name a single delegate of Paul's who exploited them? The verb epleonektēsa ('took advantage of, defrauded') is the same used in 7:2.

Translator Notes

1. Paul cites Titus as a specific test case: the Corinthians can verify that Titus conducted himself with the same integrity as Paul. The rhetorical questions expect the answer 'No, he did not take advantage' and 'Yes, you acted the same way.' Paul's delegates replicate his character.

Translator Notes

1. Paul corrects a misperception: his fool's speech was not self-defense (apologia) but was spoken 'in the sight of God' (katenanti theou) for the Corinthians' edification (oikodomēs, 'building up'). Everything Paul has said serves not his reputation but their spiritual growth. The address 'beloved' (agapētoi) reminds them of the relational warmth beneath the sharp rhetoric.

Translator Notes

1. Paul lists eight vices he fears finding in Corinth — a catalog of relational sins that destroy community. The fear is mutual: Paul may not find the Corinthians as he wishes, and they may encounter a Paul they do not want (i.e., a disciplinarian). Many of these vices echo the problems already addressed in 1 Corinthians.

Translator Notes

1. Paul's deepest fear is that unrepentant sin will force a painful confrontation. The triad akatharsia ('impurity'), porneia ('sexual immorality'), and aselgeia ('sensuality, debauchery') describes the sexual sins that were endemic in Corinthian culture and had apparently persisted in the church. The verb penthēsō ('I will mourn, I will grieve') shows that Paul's response to sin in the community is grief, not anger — the pastoral heart behind the apostolic authority.